ADB to disburse $350m loan to RI

ADB to disburse $350m loan to RI

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday it expected to disburse a US$350 million loan tranche to Indonesia within the next six weeks after parliament approved the country's anti-money laundering bill.

"That tranche could be granted in the next five to six weeks," ADB Indonesia director Jan PM van Heeswijk told AFX-Asia, an AFP- owned financial newswire.

"We will have to review the law and prepare the papers, and if they (the government) have met the conditions we will send it to our board and if the board approves it we will disburse it," he said.

He said the board usually needs about three weeks to review a disbursement recommendation.

The loan tranche in question is the last of a $1.4 billion financial sector program loan.

Its disbursement has been held up due to parliament's delay in passing the anti-money laundering bill, the most important of the conditions attached to the last tranche, van Heeswijk said.

Parliament on Monday approved the bill, which Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said was partly aimed at fighting international terrorism.

The law will come into effect after it is signed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and will be implemented by a financial transactions reporting and analysis center, taking over the role from the central bank. The center is still not established.

Financial service firms will have to inform the agency about all cash transactions worth Rp 500 million (around $51,000) or more.

Individuals must report any cases in which they bring in or take out of the country cash worth Rp 100 million or more.